The lastest book of Tang Shiping, professor of School of International Relations and Pulic Affairs, develops a general theory of institutional change based on a social evolutionary synthesis of the conflict approach and the harmony approach. It argues that because the whole process of institutional change can be understood as a process of selecting a few ideas and turning them into institutions, competition of ideas and struggle for power to make rules are often at the heart of institutional change. The general theory not only integrates more specific theories and insights on institutional change that have been scattered in different fields into a coherent general theory but also provides fundamental new insights and points to new directions for future research.